So the other day I was browsing CEX and spotted a copy of Red Dead Redemption on Xbox 360 for £6. I'd heard it was an absolute classic and missed it first time around - I pretty much only played PC last gen and so missed quite a few of the big blockbuster console exclusives - wasn't till this gen that I played TLoU either.
So I grabbed it on a whim, went home and popped it into my Xbox One S. It's my first time playing a 360 game on the Xb1 and let's just get this out of the way: Xbox b/c is a truly brilliantly well implemented, easy system and Microsoft deserve a huge amount of praise for how they're handling it. I really hope Sony do it properly next gen because PS Now is laughable in comparison.
Anyway, onto Red Dead! I've played about 4 hours worth so far and I have to say it deserves the praise it gets. The music and atmosphere is absolutely spot on: Rockstar really nailed the dingy vibe of the period. Each little "town" (more like cluster of dwellings) feels deliciously quiet and grim. Despite this, Armadillo still feels like a lovely beacon of bustle and civilisation when you ride in after a long night hunting outlaws. The way they manage to make even grim, lonely outposts like this feel so welcoming compared to the wilderness outside is brilliant.
Combat feels tight so far, with enjoyable shooting and guns that feel satisfying. I like that the enemies don't feel spongy at all (so far at least), with one or, at most, two shots being all that is required to drop someone. It has a decent bit of depth with the ability to shoot people in the leg and then lasso them and Dead Eye mode is excellent if, perhaps, a little too good. I'm all for it in general as it helps to convey that idea of a lightning fast and lethally accurate gunman, but it lasts a heck of a long time!
The story is entertaining so far with some good characters and I'm intrigued to see what happens next.
Graphically speaking, the game holds up extremely well, with an impressively sharp looking image for its age and solid frame rate from what I can make out. It has a somewhat limited colour palette, with heavy use of browns and greys as was fairly common last gen but that could well have been a design choice anyway.
The freedom of choice in terms of what you do and when you do it which we have come to expect from Rockstar is also present and correct here and I like the array of different side activities on offer.
Now, onto the odd things I don't like:
Movement / cover controls.
This is probably a legacy of the GTA IV / GTA V engine they used to make the game but it really makes me hope they've sorted this out for RDR 2 and GTA 6. The whole tapping A to sprint thing is just as irritating here as it is in GTA, as is the non analogue movement. Just have movement speed set on the analogue stick, with small movements causing him to walk and larger presses causing him to run. It annoys me just as much as it does on GTA - the way you are forced to either hold down a button constantly or walk at a hideous, snail's pace. The cover system is ok but the game shows its age here: many games have done cover better since and I found myself yearning for some snappier movements around cover such as quick and easy dashes between covers etc.
The stealth system and how it links in to the gameplay
The game has a (very) rudimentary stealth system, similar to GTA, where a click of the left stick puts you into a crouch position. This is meant to make you more stealthy but the lack of any kind of vision indicator, coupled with AI that seems to spot you just as well whether you are in stealth mode or not, makes it feel somewhat pointless. Apparently there is some kind of "stealth execution" system where you can one hit KO guys with the knife but I've never managed to get close enough to anyone yet to pull it off.
Stealth in general could, I feel, be better worked in to the gameplay. The best example of this came when I did a bounty hunt mission just now. I got the mission, went out into the wilderness and saved at a camp just before I reached my target. As the game skips forward 6 hours with each save it was 2AM by the time I was moving in. When I got to the crest of a small hill and took cover behind a rock to scope out the scene, however, I found the entire group of guards and the target were all up and about, wandering around and totally alert. It feels like there's a day / night cycle but it has absolutely no bearing on AI routines. I tried to sneak in close but they seemed to spot me just as easily at night as they did in the day so it all ended up in a massive firefight anyway.
Again, this is possibly where I have been spoilt by more recent games - I have to keep reminding myself that it's 7 years old now. The graphics and way it plays on Xbox 1 make it easy to forget that! I would love it in RDR2 if the day / night cycle played more of a role. It would be awesome to have a choice about bounty targets - do you try to take them in the day or wait until cover of darkness, when more of their comrades might be asleep? This could then combine well with a better stealth system which allows you to sneak in and do some quiet throat cutting in the dead of night. I know they want to retain some form of challenge but we're not talking about military trained spec ops units here - I would hazard a guess that most small groups of outlaws would have just gone to sleep at night if camped out in the wilderness. It feels a little silly that, at 2AM, these guys are all out pacing around with a perfectly set up perimeter and on high alert!
That's being picky though and is more of a wish for RDR2 than a genuine "why couldn't they have done this with the original?" - I'm fully aware that they were probably pushing the PS360 hard enough with the game as it was.
Really great experience so far though and I'm looking forward to carrying on!
So I grabbed it on a whim, went home and popped it into my Xbox One S. It's my first time playing a 360 game on the Xb1 and let's just get this out of the way: Xbox b/c is a truly brilliantly well implemented, easy system and Microsoft deserve a huge amount of praise for how they're handling it. I really hope Sony do it properly next gen because PS Now is laughable in comparison.
Anyway, onto Red Dead! I've played about 4 hours worth so far and I have to say it deserves the praise it gets. The music and atmosphere is absolutely spot on: Rockstar really nailed the dingy vibe of the period. Each little "town" (more like cluster of dwellings) feels deliciously quiet and grim. Despite this, Armadillo still feels like a lovely beacon of bustle and civilisation when you ride in after a long night hunting outlaws. The way they manage to make even grim, lonely outposts like this feel so welcoming compared to the wilderness outside is brilliant.
Combat feels tight so far, with enjoyable shooting and guns that feel satisfying. I like that the enemies don't feel spongy at all (so far at least), with one or, at most, two shots being all that is required to drop someone. It has a decent bit of depth with the ability to shoot people in the leg and then lasso them and Dead Eye mode is excellent if, perhaps, a little too good. I'm all for it in general as it helps to convey that idea of a lightning fast and lethally accurate gunman, but it lasts a heck of a long time!
The story is entertaining so far with some good characters and I'm intrigued to see what happens next.
Graphically speaking, the game holds up extremely well, with an impressively sharp looking image for its age and solid frame rate from what I can make out. It has a somewhat limited colour palette, with heavy use of browns and greys as was fairly common last gen but that could well have been a design choice anyway.
The freedom of choice in terms of what you do and when you do it which we have come to expect from Rockstar is also present and correct here and I like the array of different side activities on offer.
Now, onto the odd things I don't like:
Movement / cover controls.
This is probably a legacy of the GTA IV / GTA V engine they used to make the game but it really makes me hope they've sorted this out for RDR 2 and GTA 6. The whole tapping A to sprint thing is just as irritating here as it is in GTA, as is the non analogue movement. Just have movement speed set on the analogue stick, with small movements causing him to walk and larger presses causing him to run. It annoys me just as much as it does on GTA - the way you are forced to either hold down a button constantly or walk at a hideous, snail's pace. The cover system is ok but the game shows its age here: many games have done cover better since and I found myself yearning for some snappier movements around cover such as quick and easy dashes between covers etc.
The stealth system and how it links in to the gameplay
The game has a (very) rudimentary stealth system, similar to GTA, where a click of the left stick puts you into a crouch position. This is meant to make you more stealthy but the lack of any kind of vision indicator, coupled with AI that seems to spot you just as well whether you are in stealth mode or not, makes it feel somewhat pointless. Apparently there is some kind of "stealth execution" system where you can one hit KO guys with the knife but I've never managed to get close enough to anyone yet to pull it off.
Stealth in general could, I feel, be better worked in to the gameplay. The best example of this came when I did a bounty hunt mission just now. I got the mission, went out into the wilderness and saved at a camp just before I reached my target. As the game skips forward 6 hours with each save it was 2AM by the time I was moving in. When I got to the crest of a small hill and took cover behind a rock to scope out the scene, however, I found the entire group of guards and the target were all up and about, wandering around and totally alert. It feels like there's a day / night cycle but it has absolutely no bearing on AI routines. I tried to sneak in close but they seemed to spot me just as easily at night as they did in the day so it all ended up in a massive firefight anyway.
Again, this is possibly where I have been spoilt by more recent games - I have to keep reminding myself that it's 7 years old now. The graphics and way it plays on Xbox 1 make it easy to forget that! I would love it in RDR2 if the day / night cycle played more of a role. It would be awesome to have a choice about bounty targets - do you try to take them in the day or wait until cover of darkness, when more of their comrades might be asleep? This could then combine well with a better stealth system which allows you to sneak in and do some quiet throat cutting in the dead of night. I know they want to retain some form of challenge but we're not talking about military trained spec ops units here - I would hazard a guess that most small groups of outlaws would have just gone to sleep at night if camped out in the wilderness. It feels a little silly that, at 2AM, these guys are all out pacing around with a perfectly set up perimeter and on high alert!
That's being picky though and is more of a wish for RDR2 than a genuine "why couldn't they have done this with the original?" - I'm fully aware that they were probably pushing the PS360 hard enough with the game as it was.
Really great experience so far though and I'm looking forward to carrying on!
